34 



TWENTIETH CENTURY CLASSICS 



which nature has provided it. This little "egg tooth," 

 as it is popularly called, is then absorbed, for there is no 

 further use for it. 



Some nestlings can run about and help themselves as 

 soon as they come out of the shell, and are covered with 

 soft, downy feathers; others, helpless for a time after 

 hatching, must have food brought to them. 



We can divide the newly hatched nestlings into two 

 classes : those that come out of the egg featherless and 

 helpless (altricial ), and those that are hatched with a 

 coat of down and can run about after the parent l:^rd and 

 help themselves ( precocial ) . 



We may suppose, too, that the birds that build such 

 good basket-like nests in the trees away from danger do 

 so for the sake of their helpless young, while the Wild 

 Turkey, the Prairie Chicken, and the Quail, whose young 

 are able to run about at once, make their nests on the 

 ground. One naturalist says he has seen the young of 

 the Wild Turkey run about with portions of the shell still 

 clinging to them. 



The behavior of the mother-bird while incubating is 

 often very attractive to a bird-lover. Bradford Torrey, 

 in his account of a "Woodland Intimate," relates his ex- 

 perience with a Solitary Vireo ( Blue-headed ) while nest- 

 ing. He first approached the nest rapidly, thinking to 

 come up closely by surprise. When he came to a stand- 

 still his eyes were within a foot of the bird. He placed 

 his hand gently against the bottom of the nest. At this 

 she partly arose and craned her neck to see what was go- 

 ing on, but soon settled back again. Each day he called 

 to see her, and was permitted to stroke her feathers, and 

 when his hand was placed on her head she pecked his fin- 

 ger in a pretty, gentle way. On another day he brought 

 her food consisting of insects ; these she ate from his hand. 



